{"id":1114,"date":"2016-10-17T14:07:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T14:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newmansociety.org\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2020-05-26T14:19:10","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T18:19:10","slug":"thing-catholic-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardinalnewmansociety.org\/thing-catholic-math\/","title":{"rendered":"Is There Such a Thing as Catholic Math?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Is there a Catholic way of learning something?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Math? Science? History?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s an intriguing question. We wrestled with the question this past year at The Cardinal Newman Society, while developing proposed\u00a0Catholic curriculum standards<\/a>\u00a0for Catholic education.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s easy to understand that Jesus is the\u00a0Master Teacher<\/a>. \u201cRabbi,\u201d His disciples called Him. A Catholic teacher should emulate Christ and should lead young people to Him.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But saying there\u2019s a Catholic approach to mathematics evokes a vision of Jesus writing in the sand at the Sea of Galilee, attempting to teach pre-calculus to a school of fishermen. Oh, if only Catholics did have a divinely simple method of advanced mathematics! It\u2019s not, at least, in my translation of the Bible.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019ve never heard a historian suggest that Catholics should learn only about their own experience while neglecting other important world events. Salvation history deserves priority in Catholic education. But within the particular academic discipline of history, studying the Nazi Holocaust is arguably as necessary as studying the Exodus.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019ve also never heard a scientist suggest that the scientific method works better for Catholics, or that the Old Testament is a textbook for scientific knowledge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So what\u2019s \u201cCatholic education,\u201d then? Is it a secular education on which we sprinkle prayer, catechesis and Christian values?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The promise seems much larger. Certainly there\u2019s not much point of Catholic standards for curricula in math, history, science and English language arts, if the \u201ceducation\u201d in Catholic schools is not uniquely Catholic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The truth is, there is indeed something very special in Catholic education about how and what a student learns. That\u2019s in every subject \u2014 not just religion. It doesn\u2019t mean rejecting knowledge that is truthful and worthy of a secular education. But Catholic education has priorities that are uniquely suited to human development and to the needs of the soul, and so our expectations for student learning are always and substantially different \u2026 and better!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A Catholic education is evangelical; it is one of the Church\u2019s chief means of teaching the faith and bringing people to Christ. We find God in all things, inside and outside religion class.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A Catholic education is formational; it strives not only to teach useful knowledge and skills, but to prepare the whole person \u2014 body, mind and soul \u2014 for service to man and God. We want our students to be saints.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A Catholic education is empowering; it teaches students the knowledge and ability to think critically about the world and about human culture, so that our graduates can go forth and help transform family, society, business, government and Church in accord with the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Therefore, we expect students to come away from mathematics with something more than a means of engineering and astronomy. By studying math,\u00a0we want our students to<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n